Does my affiliate program have a good brand? Web retailers engaged in performance marketing...this is a crucial question to ask yourself. In fact any advertiser serious about affiliate marketing needs to be asking this question. Without a good program brand you are (or will be) fighting an uphill battle to retain the loyalty of top publishers, which means acquiring new customers and increasing sales will be difficult.

On the other hand, with a strong program brand, the needle moves quicker and in a more responsible way. Reaching milestones becomes easier. Having an effective program brand is your most powerful recruiting tool. The better your program is positioned as the authority in your category, the easier it is to attract influential top publishers.

It's counterproductive to spend time and effort recruiting new publishers unless you first establish a strong affiliate program brand.

How is that accomplished? First, be sure your store converts. Do everything right on your end so that when a publisher sends you a customer, you convert that referral to a sale. Some networks report advertiser conversion rates, and the lower yours is, the more likely top publishers will move on to competitors. Publishers are savvy and it's just smart business to maximize earnings on every click.

Next, have a dedicated and experienced program manager. Your program manager should be a communications specialist that has the ability to build and maintain relationships over time. They should be responsive, patient, transparent, communicate clearly and support your publishers to the highest degree. It should be a no-brainier for publishers to send traffic your way, instead of to another store. Your program manager can influence that decision by following fundamental principles of affiliate program management.

In general good program managers advocate for the well-being and success of their publishers. If they succeed, so does the manager and the store. Specific characteristics of good program managers include, but are not limited to,

Building a strong, authoritative program brand is not difficult but it is a process. So find a good program manager, pay them what they're worth, and be patient. Measure results over months and years, not days and weeks. Unfortunately many well-known, nationally, and even internationally recognized web retailers do not support their programs, thus they fail to build a strong program brand. Programs on "auto-pilot" lead to liabilities, a bad return on the effort and an overall resentment of the channel (and our industry).

So it's worth repeating: The cultivation of a strong affiliate program brand is your best recruiting tool. When you step to the front of the pack in terms of understanding the value of publishers, and supporting their efforts, you win. It's really that simple.